SparkNotes: Thus Spoke Zarathustra: Summary Thus Spoke Zarathustra Context Characters and Terms The novel opens with Zarathustra descending from his cave in the mountains after ten years of solitude. He is brimming with wisdom and love, and wants to teach humanity about the overman. He arrives in the town of the Motley Cow, and announces that the overman must be the meaning of the earth. Mankind is just a bridge between animal and overman, and as such, must be overcome. The overman is someone who is free from all the prejudices and moralities of human society, and who creates his own values and purpose. The people on the whole seem not to understand Zarathustra, and not to be interested in the overman. The only exception is a tightrope walker who has fallen and who dies shortly thereafter. At the end of his first day among people, Zarathustra is saddened by his inability to move this "herd" of people in the marketplace. He resolves not to try to convert the multitudes, but rather to speak to those individuals who are interested in separating themselves from the herd.

The bulk of the first three parts is made up of individual lessons and sermons delivered by Zarathustra. They cover most of the general themes of Nietzsche's mature philosophy, though often in highly symbolic and obscure form. He values struggle and hardship, since the road toward the overman is difficult and requires a great deal of sacrifice. The struggle toward the overman is often symbolically represented as climbing a mountain, and the light-hearted free spirit of the overman is often represented through laughter and dance. Zarathustra is harshly critical of all kinds of mass movements, and of the "rabble" in general. Christianity is based upon a hatred of the body and of this earth, and an attempt to deny them both by believing in the spirit and in an afterlife. Nationalism and mass politics are also means by which weary, weak, or sick bodies try to escape from themselves. Those who are strong enough, Zarathustra suggests, struggle. Those who are not strong give up and turn to religion, nationalism, democracy, or some other means of escape. The culmination of Zarathustra's preaching is the doctrine of the eternal recurrence, which claims that all events will repeat themselves again and again forevermore.

Only the overman can embrace this doctrine, since only the overman has the strength of will to take responsibility for every moment in his life and to wish nothing more than for each moment to be repeated. Zarathustra has trouble facing the eternal recurrence, as he cannot bear the thought that the mediocrity of the rabble will be repeated through all eternity without improvement. In Part IV, Zarathustra assembles in his cave a number of men who approximate, but who do not quite attain the position of the overman. There, they enjoy a feast and a number of songs. The book ends with Zarathustra joyfully embracing the eternal recurrence, and the thought that "all joy wants deep, wants deep eternity." More Help Thus Spoke Zarathustra-Nietzsche-Audiobook | ConCen Thus Spoke Zarathustra-Nietzsche-Audiobook From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (May 2007) This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. Please help recruit one or improve this article yourself. See the talk page for details.

Please consider using {{Expert-subject}} to associate this request with a WikiProject Thus Spoke Zarathustra Title page of the first edition. Author Friedrich Nietzsche Original title 'Also sprach Zarathustra' Country Germany Preceded by The Gay Science (1882) Followed by Beyond Good and Evil (1886) "Also sprach Zarathustra" redirects here. For other uses, see Also sprach Zarathustra (disambiguation). Thus Spoke Zarathustra (German: Also sprach Zarathustra, sometimes translated Thus Spake Zarathustra), subtitled A Book for All and None (Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen), is a work by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, composed in four parts between 1883 and 1885.

Much of the work deals with ideas such as the "eternal recurrence of the same", the parable on the "death of God", and the "prophecy" of the Overman, which were first introduced in The Gay Science.[1] Described by Nietzsche himself as "the deepest ever written", the book is a dense and esoteric treatise on philosophy and morality, featuring as protagonist a fictionalized Zarathustra. A central irony of the text is that the style of the Bible is used by Nietzsche to present ideas of his which fundamentally oppose Judaeo-Christian morality and tradition.

Contents * 7 Editions of Thus Spoke Zarathustra * 8 Essay Collections on Thus Spoke Zarathustra * 9 References * 10 External links [edit] Genesis Thus Spoke Zarathustra was conceived while Nietzsche was writing The Gay Science; he made a small note, reading "6,000 feet beyond man and time", as evidence of this.[2] More specifically, this note related to the concept of the Eternal Recurrence, which is, by Nietzsche's admission, the central idea of Zarathustra; this idea occurred to him by a "pyramidal block of stone" on the shores of Lake Silvaplana in the Upper Engadine, a high alpine region whose valley floor is at 6,000 ft. Nietzsche planned to write the book in three parts over several years. He wrote that the ideas for Zarathustra first came to him while walking on two roads surrounding Rapallo, according to Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche in the introduction of Thomas Common's early translation of the book.

While developing the general outlook of the book, he subsequently decided to write an additional three parts; ultimately, however, he composed only the fourth part, which is viewed to constitute an intermezzo. Nietzsche commented in Ecce Homo that for the completion of each part: "Ten days sufficed; in no case, neither for the first nor for the third and last, did I require more" (trans. Kaufmann). The first three parts were first published separately, and were subsequently published in a single volume in 1887. The fourth part remained private after Nietzsche wrote it in 1885; a scant forty copies were all that were printed, apart from seven others that were distributed to Nietzsche's close friends. In March 1892, the four parts were finally reprinted as a single volume. Since then, the version most commonly produced has included all four parts. The original text contains a great deal of word-play. An example of this exists in the use of the words "over" or "super" and the words "down" or "abyss/abysmal"; some examples include "superman" or "overman", "overgoing", "downgoing", and "self-overcoming".

[edit] Synopsis The book chronicles the fictitious travels and pedagogy of Zarathustra (Avestan: Zara&#952;uštra), usually known in English as Zoroaster, the Persian prophet and founder of Zoroastrianism. Nietzsche is clearly portraying a "new" or "different" Zarathustra, one who turns traditional morality on its head. He goes on to characterize "what the name of Zarathustra means in my mouth, the mouth of the first immoralist:" [F]or what constitutes the tremendous historical uniqueness of that Persian is just the opposite of this. Zarathustra was the first to consider the fight of good and evil the very wheel in the machinery of things: the transposition of morality into the metaphysical realm, as a force, cause, and end in itself, is his work. […] Zarathustra created this most calamitous error, morality; consequently, he must also be the first to recognize it.

[…] His doctrine, and his alone, posits truthfulness as the highest virtue; this means the opposite of the cowardice of the "idealist” who flees from reality […]—Am I understood?—The self-overcoming of morality, out of truthfulness; the self-overcoming of the moralist, into his opposite—into me—that is what the name of Zarathustra means in my mouth. – Nietzsche, Ecce Homo, "Why I Am a Destiny", §3, trans. Walter Kaufmann Zarathustra has a simple characterisation and plot,[3] narrated sporadically throughout the text. It possesses a unique experimental style, one that is, for instance, evident in newly invented "dithyrambs" narrated or sung by Zarathustra. Likewise, the separate Dithyrambs of Dionysus was written in autumn 1888, and printed with the full volume in 1892, as the corollaries of Zarathustra's "abundance". Some speculate that Nietzsche intended to write about final acts of creation and destruction brought about by Zarathustra.

However, the book lacks a finale to match that description; its actual ending focuses more on Zarathustra recognizing his legacy is beginning to perpetuate, and consequently choosing to leave the higher men to their own devices in carrying his legacy forth. Zarathustra also contains the famous dictum "God is dead", which had appeared earlier in The Gay Science.[4] In his autobiographical work Ecce Homo, Nietzsche states that the book's underlying concept is discussed within "the penultimate section of the fourth book" of The Gay Science (Ecce Homo, Kaufmann). It is the Eternal recurrence of the same events. This concept first occurred to Nietzsche while he was walking in Switzerland through the woods along the lake of Silvaplana (close to Surlei); he was inspired by the sight of a gigantic, towering, pyramidal rock. Before Zarathustra, Nietzsche had mentioned the concept in the fourth book of The Gay Science (e.g., sect. 341); this was the first public proclamation of the notion by him. Apart from its salient presence in Zarathustra, it is also echoed throughout Nietzsche's work.

At any rate, it is by Zarathustra's transfiguration that he embraces eternity, that he at last ascertains "the supreme will to power".[5] This inspiration finds its expression with Zarathustra's Roundelay, featured twice in the book, once near the story's close: “ O man, take care! What does the deep midnight declare? "I was asleep— From a deep dream I woke and swear:— The world is deep, Deeper than day had been aware. Deep is its woe— Joy—deeper yet than agony: Woe implores: Go! But all joy wants eternity— Wants deep, wants deep eternity." ” Another singular feature of Zarathustra, first presented in the prologue, is the designation of human beings as a transition between apes and the "Übermensch" (in English, either the "overman" or "superman"; or, superhuman or overhuman. English translators Thomas Common and R. J. Hollingdale use superman, while Kaufmann uses overman, and Parkes uses overhuman).

The Übermensch is one of the many interconnecting, interdependent themes of the story, and is represented through several different metaphors. Examples include: the lightning that is portended by the silence and raindrops of a travelling storm cloud; or the sun's rise and culmination at its midday zenith; or a man traversing a rope stationed above an abyss, moving away from his uncultivated animality and towards the Übermensch. The symbol of the Übermensch also alludes to Nietzsche's notions of "self-mastery", "self-cultivation", "self-direction", and "self-overcoming". Expostulating these concepts, Zarathustra declares: "I teach you the overman. Man is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him? "All beings so far have created something beyond themselves; and do you want to be the ebb of this great flood and even go back to the beasts rather than overcome man? What is the ape to man? A laughingstock or a painful embarrassment. And man shall be just that for the overman: a laughingstock or a painful embarrassment. You have made your way from worm to man, and much in you is still worm.

Once you were apes, and even now, too, man is more ape than any ape. "Whoever is the wisest among you is also a mere conflict and cross between plant and ghost. But do I bid you become ghosts or plants? "Behold, I teach you the overman! The overman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the overman shall be the meaning of the earth! I beseech you, my brothers, remain faithful to the earth, and do not believe those who speak to you of otherworldly hopes! Poison-mixers are they, whether they know it or not. Despisers of life are they, decaying and poisoned themselves, of whom the earth is weary: so let them go!" – Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Prologue, §3, trans. Walter Kaufmann The book embodies a number of innovative poetical and rhetorical methods of expression. It serves as a parallel and supplement to the various philosophical ideas present in Nietzsche's body of work. He has, however, said that "among my writings my Zarathustra stands to my mind by itself" (Ecce Homo, Preface, sec. 4, Kaufmann).

Emphasizing its centrality and its status as his magnum opus, it is stated by Nietzsche that: With [Thus Spoke Zarathustra] I have given mankind the greatest present that has ever been made to it so far. This book, with a voice bridging centuries, is not only the highest book there is, the book that is truly characterized by the air of the heights—the whole fact of man lies beneath it at a tremendous distance—it is also the deepest, born out of the innermost wealth of truth, an inexhaustible well to which no pail descends without coming up again filled with gold and goodness. – Ecce Homo, Preface, §4, trans. Walter Kaufmann Since, as stated, many of the book's ideas are also present in his other works, Zarathustra is seen to have served as a precursor to his later philosophical thought. With the book, Nietzsche embraced a distinct aesthetic assiduity. He later reformulated many of his ideas, in his book Beyond Good and Evil and various other writings that he composed thereafter.

He continued to emphasize his philosophical concerns; generally, his intention was to show an alternative to repressive moral codes and to avert "nihilism" in all of its varied forms. Other aspects of Thus Spake Zarathustra pertain to Nietzsche's proposed "Transvaluation of All Values". This incomplete project began with The Antichrist. [edit] Themes Nietzsche injects myriad ideas into the book, but there are a few recurring themes. The overman (Übermensch), a self-mastered individual who has achieved his full power, is an almost omnipresent idea in Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Man as a race is merely a bridge between animals and the overman. Nietzsche also makes a point that the overman is not an end result for a person, but more the journey toward self-mastery. The eternal recurrence, found elsewhere in Nietzsche's writing, is also mentioned. The eternal recurrence is the idea that all events that have happened will happen again, infinitely many times. Such a reality can serve as the litmus test for an overman. Faced with the knowledge that he would repeat every action that he has taken, an overman would be elated as he has no regrets and loves life.

The will to power is the fundamental component of human nature. Everything we do is an expression of the will to power. The will to power is a psychological analysis of all human action and is accentuated by self-overcoming and self-enhancement. Contrasted with living for procreation, pleasure, or happiness, the will to power is the summary of all man's struggle against his surrounding environment as well as his reason for living in it. Copious criticisms of Christianity can be found in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, in particular Christian values of good and evil and its purported lie of an afterlife. Nietzsche sees the complacency of Christian values as fetters to the achievement of overman as well as on the human spirit. Contrasting sharply with Christianity, Nietzsche praises lust, selfishness, while reproaching the rewarded concepts of pity and love for neighbors. [edit] Style Nietzsche is considered unique among philosophers by some scholars for what is widely regarded as the power and effectiveness of his rhetorical style — particularly as manifested in Zarathustra. The indigestible "heaviness" long associated with German-language philosophy is eschewed, with puns and paradoxes abounding, and aphoristic brevity characteristic of parable and even poetry.

The end result is a manner of writing which, being "pitched half-way between metaphor and literal statement", is "something quite extraordinary".[6] A vulnerability of Nietzsche's style is that his nuances and shades of meaning are very easily lost — and all too easily gained — in translation. The Übermensch is particularly problematic: the equivalent "Superman" found in dictionaries and in the translations by Thomas Common and R.J. Hollingdale may create an unfortunate association with the heroic comic-character "Superman", while simultaneously detracting from Nietzsche's repeated play on "über" as well as losing the gender-neutrality of the German. The "Übermensch" is the being that overcomes the "great nausea" associated with nihilism; that overcomes that most "abysmal" realization of the eternal return. He is the being that "sails over morality", and that dances over gravity (the "spirit of gravity" is Zarathustra's devil and archenemy). He is a "harvester" and a "celebrant" who endlessly affirms his existence, thereby becoming the transfigurer of his consciousness and life, aesthetically.

He is initially a destructive force, excising and annihilating the insidious "truths" of the herd, and consequently reclaiming the chaos from which pure creativity is born. It is this creative force exemplified by the Übermensch that justifies suffering without displacing it in some "afterworld". [edit] Translations The English translations of Zarathustra differ according to the sentiments of the translators. The Thomas Common translation favors a classic English approach, in the style of Shakespeare or the King James bible. Common's poetic interpretation of the text, which renders the title Thus Spake Zarathustra, received wide acclaim for its lambent portrayal. The Common translation, which improved on Alexander Tille's earlier attempt,[7] remained widely accepted until the more critical translations, titled Thus Spoke Zarathustra, separately by R.J. Hollingdale and Walter Kaufmann, which are considered to convey more accurately the German text than the Common version.

Kaufmann's introduction to his own translation included a blistering critique of Common's version; he notes that in one instance, Common has taken the German "most evil" and rendered it "baddest", a particularly unfortunate error not merely for his having coined the term "baddest", but also because Nietzsche dedicated a third of The Genealogy of Morals to the difference between "bad" and "evil".[7] This and other errors led Kaufmann to wondering if Common "had little German and less English".[7] These successor translations to Common, of Kaufmann and Hollingdale, render the text in a far more familiar, less archaic, style of language. Clancy Martin's 2005 translation opens with criticism and praise for these three seminal translators, Common, Hollingdale, and Kaufmann. He notes that the German text available to Common was considerably flawed, and that the German text from which Hollingdale and Kaufmann worked was itself untrue to Nietzsche's own work in some ways.

Martin criticizes Kaufmann for changing punctuation, altering literal and philosophical meanings, and dampening some of Nietzsche's more controversial metaphors.[8] Kaufmann's version, which has become the most widely available, features a translator's note suggesting that Nietzsche's text would have benefited from an editor; Martin suggests that Kaufmann "took it upon himself to become his editor".[8] [edit] Musical adaptation The book inspired Richard Strauss to compose the tone poem Also sprach Zarathustra, which he designated "freely based on Friedrich Nietzsche." [9] Zarathustra's Roundelay is set as part of Gustav Mahler's Third Symphony originally under the title What Man Tells Me.

[edit] Editions of Thus Spoke Zarathustra * 1st - 1909 - (limited to 2,000) * 2nd - 1911 - (limited to 1,500) * 3rd - 1914 - (limited to 2,000) * 4th - 1916 - (limited to 2,000) of Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None translated by Thomas Common, published by the MacMillan Company in 1916, printed in Great Britain by The Darwien Press of Edinburgh.

* Also sprach Zarathustra, edited by Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari, Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag (study edition of the standard German Nietzsche edition) * Thus Spoke Zarathustra, translated by Walter Kaufmann, New York: Random House; reprinted in The Portable Nietzsche, New York: The Viking Press, 1954 and Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1976 * Thus Spoke Zarathustra, translated by R. J. Hollingdale, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1961 * Thus Spoke Zarathustra, translated by Graham Parkes, Oxford: Oxford World's Classics, 2005 * Thus Spoke Zarathustra, translated by Adrian del Caro and edited by Robert Pippin, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006 [edit] Essay Collections on Thus Spoke Zarathustra * Essays on Thus Spoke Zarathustra: Before Sunrise, edited by James Luchte, London: Continuum International Publishing, 2008. ISBN 1847062210 [edit] References 1.

^ C. Guignon, D. Pereboom. Existentialism: Basic Writings, 2nd ed., Hackett, 2001. pp. 101-113 2. ^ Gutmann, James. "The "Tremendous Moment" of Nietzsche's Vision". The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 51, No. 25. American Philosophical Association Eastern Division: Papers to be presented at the Fifty-First Annual Meeting, Goucher College, December 28-30, 1954. pp. 837-842. 3. ^ Pippin, Robert. "Nietzsche: Thus Spoke Zarathustra". Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy, University of Chicago, 2006. ISBN 0-5216-0261-0. p. ix. 4. ^ Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. "The Gay Science: With a Prelude in German Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs". (Edition) Random House, 1974. p. xii. 5. ^ The Will to Power, sect. 617; trans. Kaufmann 6.

^ J.P. Stern 7. ^ a b c Nietzsche, Friedrich. Trans. Kaufmann, Walter. The Portable Nietzsche. 1976, page 108-9. 8. ^ a b Nietzsche, Friedrich. Trans. Martin, Clancy. Thus Spoke Zarathustra. 2005, page xxxiii. 9. ^ Bernard Jacobson. "Richard Strauss, Also Sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30 (1896)". American Symphony Orchestra: Dialogues and Extensions. Retrieved on 2007-12-11.

[edit] External links Wikisource has original text related to this article: Thus Spake Zarathustra German Wikisource has original text related to this article: Also sprach Zarathustra Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Thus Spake Zarathustra * Project Gutenberg's etext of Thus Spake Zarathustra, translated by Thomas Common * Project Gutenberg's etext of Also Sprach Zarathustra (the German original) [hide] Friedrich Nietzsche Works The Birth of Tragedy · On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense · The Untimely Meditations · Hymnus an das Leben · Human, All Too Human · Daybreak · The Gay Science · Thus Spoke Zarathustra · Beyond Good and Evil · On the Genealogy of Morality · The Case of Wagner · Twilight of the Idols · The Antichrist · Ecce Homo · Nietzsche contra Wagner · The Will to Power (posthumous) Nietzsche Philosophy Apollonian and Dionysian · Eternal return · Freedom · God is dead · Herd instinct · Last man · Master-slave morality · Nietzschean affirmation · Perspectivism · Ressentiment · Transvaluation of values · Tschandala

 · Übermensch · World riddle · Will to power Thus Spoke Zarathustra // Reviews // Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews // University of Notre Dame Thus Spoke Zarathustra Published: February 06, 2008 Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Adrian Del Caro (ed., tr.), Robert Pippin (ed.), Cambridge University Press, 2006, 270pp., $17.99 (pbk), ISBN 0521795346.

Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Graham Parkes (tr.), Oxford University Press, 2005, 335pp., $14.95 (pbk), ISBN 0192805835. Reviewed by Clancy Martin, University of Missouri, Kansas City Thus Spoke Zarathustra (hereafter TSZ) is a difficult book to translate. With a traditional philosophical text the translator's conscience is driven by accuracy, and when in doubt the translator will be as literal as possible. But that won't work with TSZ. While it is an undeniably philosophical work -- Nietzsche, the most widely influential philosopher of the past two hundred years, considered it his masterpiece -- it is also a work of literature. And you can't translate literature literally and have it work out well. Literature doesn't have only a sense, it also has a sound. That Nietzsche, like Kierkegaard, the German Romantics, and many of the twentieth-century Existentialists, thought philosophy and literature were ultimately inseparable arts only further complicates the translator's task. It would make things easier for the translator if TSZ were not so astonishingly opaque.

My mentor, the late Robert C. Solomon, frequently described TSZ as "the book I almost wish Nietzsche had never written" (and he often left out the "almost"), and many of us will be tempted to agree if only because of the damage the book has done to Nietzsche's reception among professional philosophers. Many smart people get their first real taste of Nietzsche in an attempt to read TSZ and are permanently turned off -- and not only because of the frequently odd style (one should say, styles) of the work. It is so difficult to understand what he is saying that one is tempted to conclude that you simply can't make sense of it at all -- or, still worse, that it doesn't make sense. It does make sense, as many terrific commentators have shown: first Nietzsche himself, in Beyond Good and Evil, and then others like Carl Jung, Laurence Lampert, Kathleen Higgins, Stanley Rosen, Robert Gooding-Williams, and Thomas Seung. But it is such a complex, paradoxical and gnomic book that the translator will often have difficulty knowing whether he has even approximated what Nietzsche meant from one passage to the next.

And when you're not sure what is meant, it is hard to feel confident that you've conveyed the meaning. Another problem with translating TSZ -- perhaps the thorniest of all -- is that Nietzsche imitates so many different kinds of writing in the book. As a philologist and nineteenth-century German, he is often classical: sometimes Thucydidean, sometimes Platonic, sometimes satirical after Juvenal or Perseus, sometimes as clear, precise and methodical as Aristotle. As a minister's son and a parodist and opponent of Christianity his style is often biblical, and specifically Lutheran. And, finally, as German's greatest stylist yet, he is innovative and above all modern: modern in the sense that we more commonly associate with French and English writers in the early twentieth century. Nietzsche was one of the inventors of the style of writing that insists upon the tones of ordinary speech and intelligent conversation. But to translate all of this into English requires -- well, if not an English speaking Nietzsche, at least an extraordinary amount of work, and perhaps an original literary talent.

Despite the fact that there are now seven translations of Also sprach Zarathustra into English (Tille, Common, Kaufmann, Hollingdale, Martin, Del Caro, Parkes), it may well be that Nietzsche has not yet found his English translator. Three of the English translations I have just listed appeared in the past few years: the two I am reviewing here -- one by Adrian Del Caro for Cambridge and the other by Graham Parkes for Oxford -- and (complete disclosure) my own translation (published in 2004 by Barnes and Noble Classics). To the best of my knowledge, and unfortunately, there was little if any cooperation among the translators. But simultaneous competing translations of a book, conducted by translators in ignorance of one another's work, is part of publishing today, and is also evidence, in this particular case, of the size and spread of contemporary Nietzsche scholarship. With the exception of Tille and his revision by Common, all of the translations are good for the general reader.

The translations reviewed here are the ones for the specialist to use: as a community we Nietzsche scholars should finally give up Kaufmann, now -- we all owe him a debt, but he's had his turn, and it is time for us to follow the accurate punctuation and paragraphing of Nietzsche's text -- and use either Parkes or Del Caro. The Parkes translation was done for the Oxford World's Classics series and is intended for both the general and the academic audience. The Del Caro translation, edited by Robert Pippin and Adrian Del Caro, is in the Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy series, and therefore is intended for students and scholars. Accordingly, the Parkes translation is perfectly appropriate for undergraduate classes, and the Del Caro translation might be a more natural choice for graduate seminars. Parkes' opening essay is an excellent introduction to TSZ, and I recommend it to interested readers and specialists alike. Robert Pippin's essay at the beginning of the Del Caro translation is one of the nicest short pieces he has written about Nietzsche, and is in fact one of the best essays that has been written about TSZ, period. One reads the essay and wishes it were three times as long as it is.

That is a very unusual experience in reading essays about TSZ. The translations have many things in common. In fact it is difficult to find significant differences between them. Both Parkes and Del Caro decided to follow Nietzsche's paragraph structure and punctuation as closely as possible, and I think this was mostly a good decision. Perhaps Kaufmann's single most controversial decision as a translator was his radical alteration of Nietzsche's punctuation (Hollingdale is much more faithful). Kaufmann accomplished what he wanted to in his changing of Nietzsche's punctuation and paragraphing: he made TSZ more readable. But in many places he changed the meaning or emphasis of the text, at least slightly, in doing so. Del Caro is not as strict about following Nietzsche's punctuation as Parkes is, and for this reason -- and some others, which I will get to in a moment -- I found the Del Caro translation at times to be more natural in English and yet less graceful than the Parkes translation. So, for example, Parkes writes: "These young hearts have already become old -- and not even old! only weary, common, comfortable: -- they call it 'we have become pious again'"(155), which is exactly what Nietzsche writes.

Del Caro translates the same passage as: "All these young hearts have already grown old -- and not even old! Only weary, common, comfortable -- as they put it: "We have become pious again""(142). The Del Caro punctuation is more familiar English punctuation, but to my ear, at least, it is nicer the way Parkes does it, and his has the added virtue of following the way Nietzsche does it. While the reader has both of those short passages fresh in his mind, it is worth remarking how similar they are -- and, if you take the trouble to go look, you will see they are also quite close to Kaufmann. In any new translation part of the problem is finding new formulations of already translated (and in both Kaufmann's and Hollingdale's cases, mostly well-translated) lines. Kaufmann and Hollingdale -- and through them, Common, too -- exert a strong influence on both of these translations which, in my opinion, is a good thing. Some translations go astray by trying too hard to find a novel word or phrase, and wind up harming themselves. Neither Del Caro nor Parkes have this problem.

To confirm this view, the reader need only read the first page of Kaufmann or Hollingdale and then read the first page of Del Caro or Parkes: they are all strikingly similar, and all very nicely done. Del Caro tends to lean a bit closer to Kaufmann than Parkes: Del Caro chooses the familiar "overman," for example, while Parkes takes a risk and goes with the clumsier but more accurate "overhuman." Strictly speaking it should probably be "superhuman," which, however, would be clumsiest of all. When I translated that word, Robert C. Solomon, and Kathleen Higgins (my co-editors) and I collectively decided to chicken out, and I left it untranslated, writing "Übermensch," and adding a note. Hard to say which is best -- the travails of the translator. As the Parkes and the Del Caro translations are equally and almost faultlessly accurate, choosing between the two is really a matter of personal taste. For me, the Del Caro reads more easily, but is less interesting, less sparkling. The Parkes hits both more highs and more off-key notes. Parkes seems to have put more of himself into the book.

The Parkes translation strikes me as somewhat more self-consciously literary in its aspirations, and in that way it is perhaps closer to Nietzsche's tone. He says that it is his aim to preserve the "musicality" (xxxv) of TSZ. But in places he sounds forced, and stumbles over bad lines like this one: "A more evil thing you have done to me than any murder is; something irretrievable”(96). Parkes explains in his note on the translation that, following Nietzsche and the Lutheran Bible, he is using an unusual amount of inversion, but sometimes it is a bit too much (at least, for my ear). Because inversion is much more natural in German than it is in English, I think Parkes sometimes makes TSZ sound a bit affected or silly, more affected or silly than even its unsympathetic critics would claim it is if they read it in German. Parkes uses a lot of "whither"s and "verily"s and gamely tries to be faithful to the often exaggeratedly biblical language Nietzsche employed in TSZ. But again, through being too faithful to Nietzsche's language in a somewhat literally-minded way he occasionally does TSZ a disservice.

One might say that the Parkes translation shows many of Nietzsche's stylistic strengths and weaknesses -- or one might go a bit further, and say it makes the weaknesses even worse. But Parkes also hits on many beautiful lines. Saying that Zarathustra lies down "in the stillness and secrecy of the colorful grasses" (240), for example, is just lovely. In fact, both translations are full of lovely lines. Here's a splendid bit of translation from Del Caro: Up there I guarded his coffins; the musty vaults stood full of such symbols of conquest. From glass coffins, conquered life looked out at me. / I breathed the odor of eternities turned to dust; my soul lay clammy and dusty, and who could have aired his soul in such a place! (106). He follows it up, however, with the archaic and ugly expression "my three lady friends” (107). Lady friends?! One very good reason to buy the Parkes translation is the endnotes which though not especially long -- there are about thirty pages of them -- are uniformly helpful and excellent. Parkes is particularly good at pointing out the many biblical references in the text.

He also highlights important details about the Colli-Montinari text, where relevant. The Del Caro translation has a handful of footnote, in the body of the text, and while good, they are few and far between. I think this is a real defect of the Del Caro translation, and I hope that Cambridge will correct it in subsequent editions of the book. Having a few notes was fine for Kaufmann and Hollingdale, who were in large part introducing Nietzsche to their audiences, but you just can't have a good current translation of TSZ -- especially in a scholarly series -- that does not provide detailed notes. In closing, I recommend both translations to the English reader. One or the other should supplant Kaufmann as the standard text. I won't venture a guess as to which one it will be. But I'd like to vote for Parkes, even with his weaknesses, because somehow it feels like the translation Nietzsche would have preferred. Download Thus Spoke Zarathustra (abridged) Audiobook | Fredrich Nietzsche " Nietzsche is dead.

Seriously though, worth the read but just can't agree " Ned | 1/3/2014 " some of the Walter Kauffman translations " Shrinham undead | 12/27/2013 " This really helps for further Nietzsche reading and understand. Otherwise, I would have been rather lost to say the least! " Koedy | 12/12/2013 " Kaufmann is the best translation of Nietzsche i've seen, this is an excellent composite of Nietzsche's work. " Jim | 12/11/2013 " The book puts enough of Nietzsche's works under one cover to give a pretty complete picture of his views. It seems as if he was always unhappy and unsatisfied. I'm glad to have made it through the book so that now I can say I know who he was, other than that, I didn't enjoy it. " Denae | 8/24/2013 " An excellent collection. Walter Kaufmann is absolutely my favorite translator of Nietzsche. " Sean Gardner | 7/18/2013 " The best introduction to Nietzsche, in the most reliable translation possible.

I have read this book so many times and have scribbled so many notes in the margins that it is falling apart. Honestly, one of my favourite books of all time! Check it out and be ready to be blown away! " Melissa | 10/6/2012 " some many peoples' behaviors make sense after reading this... " Chet | 10/4/2012 " Do not read as a basis for or against anything. Your views will be challenged and Nietzsche will make you grow intellectually. " Greg Plante | 7/25/2012 " Amazing. I wish I could read Thus spoke Zarathustra in German, or rather, as Neitzsche wished he had written it, in French. I know we miss out on a lot of the word play in the English version. Anyway, can't wait to read this again in 10 years when I've, hopefully, gained a bit more wisdom. ;) " Kate B | 7/12/2012 " My favourite philosopher. Essential Nietzsche.

" Michael Kelly | 7/6/2012 " This was the edition that put the final nail in the coffin of my christianity. Good days. " Janardhan Prabhakara | 6/11/2012 " Haven't found a more coherent organization of Nietzche material! " Jared | 5/19/2012 " This was great for a wide variety of Nietzsche's stuff, but I didn't give it 5 stars because there was hardly any material from The Gay Science, Beyond Good and Evil, and Ecce Homo. Other than that, its a pretty great compilation. " V | 3/13/2012 " I still look through my well marked copy often. This is an excellent intro (much of his most noted work excerpts or in full) to various Nietzsche works. " Mark | 2/9/2012 " It's alright if you like will-to-power philosophy, much like Hitler did.

" Clara-marie | 8/27/2011 " i love this book ....it totally changed the way i look at certain things ..i will surely read it again in my life " Louis | 5/18/2011 " A book to read and re-read. Beautiful ! " Thadd | 5/17/2011 " Too much telling, not enough showing. " joe | 5/6/2011 " is it possible to rid yourself of the culture you have been raised in? do we relive our lives? inspiring and depressing at the same time. " Sara | 4/21/2011 " Teve passagens que me encantaram mas muitas delas pouco percebi... Segundo consta, não é por este livro que se deve começar a ler Nietzche, os outros são precisos para contextualizar e perceber as parábolas e metáforas que abundam no Zarathustra. Vou continuar a ler Nietzche, sem dúvida.

" Friedrich | 4/15/2011 " unexplainable without reading his other works " Matthew | 4/10/2011 " The only book you will ever need to read. The key is to read it often. " Ecatarina | 4/8/2011 " This book was very difficult to get through but did really help me a great deal. The illusion of stars in Nietzsche's work is great for those who see them selves as having a greater calling. I would suggest working through this with a group or a class. " Jed | 4/7/2011 " Need to sit down with Friedrich and find out what the hell this book is about. " Diego | 3/7/2011 " La obra mas importante de Friederich Nietzche donde se condensa todo su pensamiento y filosofía sobre la voluntad de poder y el súper hombre, indispensable leerlo como parte fundamental de la filosofía del siglo XIX. " Qi | 2/27/2011 " This is written in the style of Bible and just as hard to interpret as the former.

I am clearly not ready for this before diving into other more basic work by Nietzsche. "

Question: Who wrote the novel Thus Spoke Zarathustra?
Answer: (Friedrich) Nietzsche